Anti-rape underwear which delivers a 3,800 kilovolt shock to any would-be attacker has been created by a team of female engineering students. After disabling the assailant, the undergarment has been designed to automatically send a text message to police or family members containing the GPS location of the attempted crime. Read more here.

In just less than a week The Herald has reported incidents of mothers losing their newly born babies to strangers. I’m not going to dwell into the emotional feeling of losing a baby, cause I just don’t want to take my mind there. It’s torture, unbearable. The first story which was carried during the Easter holiday was of a woman who lost her one week old baby to two female strangers at Parirenyatwa hospital after she had just been discharged. When I read the comments to the story knives were out for the mother who left her newborn in the hands of strangers whilst she went to look for food for 30 minutes. The two reasons that came to my mind as I read this story were that the baby was stolen for either ritual purposes or for the baby thief to keep as theirs. I ruled out ritual purposes slightly as I remembered an Ndebele drama I watched in my childhood days.

In this drama a woman made her South African based husband believe that she was expecting. When the time for the husband’s visit to the country was nearing, she visited a local clinic where she joined a queue with expecting mothers and some with their babies. She got friendly with one of the mothers who had a newborn and offered to hold the baby while the mother went to ladies, and that was it, she stole the baby. This drama series was not much different from the second case reported by The Herald, where the unsuspecting mother was lured into somehow ‘trusting’ the baby thief. The baby thief was said to have been looking pregnant and was seeking accommodation.

Police dealing with these cases rely heavily on the public to assist and come forward with information. If you see someone saying they have been blessed with a baby and yet you don’t recall seeing them pregnant, that is a cause for concern. Without the assistance of the public, such cases can be hard to deal with.

Gender Forum Discussion Wednesday: Are Women & Girls Second Class Citizens?

• “Mbare man gets four strokes of a cane for raping and impregnating a deaf and dumb girl of 14″
• “Four Mvuma men get community service for gang raping a 12-year-old.”

A Reflection on Sentencing of Child Rapists – with Girls’ Legacy, Padare, Justice for Children Trust, Childline and legal and child services experts.

Step Forward To Sign A Petition to the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs!

Where: Book Café, 139 Samora Machel Avenue, Cnr 6th Street, Harare
When: Wednesday 27 March
Time: 5:30 – 7pm

The slogan on my t-shirt when I’m out running or walking would read “If you can’t say just Hello and treat me like a normal human being, not some female body to pepper stupid arse unwelcome comments with, you can just Fuck Off” … Tatyana Fazlalizadeh in this New York Times article might have a better approach.

Shorty. Sweetie. Sweetheart. Baby. Boo. If you’re a woman, you’ve probably heard it.

If you were to respond, what would you say?

Last fall, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh began replying — through her art — to the dozens of men who approached her in public each week. As night fell, she slipped out of her Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment armed with a bottle of wheat paste, a couple of posters and a paintbrush, and began to pepper Brooklyn with messages:

“My name is not Baby.” “Women are not seeking your validation.” “Stop telling women to smile.”

Since September, Ms. Fazlalizadeh has plastered walls in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Clinton Hill and Williamsburg. As winter came and night temperatures dropped, though, she retired her paintbrush. “The wheat paste starts to freeze before it actually dries,” she said. “So the paper wasn’t holding.”

But as slightly warmer weather has returned, so have the messages. She recently tossed up two posters on the corner of Tompkins Avenue and Halsey Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant. And Ms. Fazlalizadeh, 27, an Oklahoma-born oil painter, illustrator and after-school art teacher, was headed back out Friday night. “I’d like them to be out in Manhattan somewhere,” she said.

The project grew out of a desire to explain that for many women, “hey sweetums” or “let’s see that smile” isn’t a compliment. “These things make you feel like your body isn’t yours,” she said.

Of course, her target audience may still need convincing. On Friday afternoon, Andrés Carlos, 50, stood by the freshly pasted posters on Tompkins Avenue. “A woman likes nothing more than being told she is beautiful,” he said. “For me, this is ridiculous.”

A friend of his, Richard Johnson, 29, passed by. Mr. Johnson is married, and no longer calls at women on the street. But he did his share of aggressive flirtation. Did women respond negatively? “Sometimes,” he said. Did he stop? “No,” he said. “I’m persistent.”

Pictured above: uZanele at IWD 2012

Sistaz of the Open Mic celebrate International Women’s Day
Saturday 9 March 2013, Book Cafe, Harare

On Saturday 9 March, the lively SISTAZ OPEN MIC programme at the Book Cafe celebrates International Women’s Day from 3pm, with a vivid line-up of women artists ready to step out and express themselves freely in celebration of women everywhere.

The line-up includes mbira princess Hope Masike, recently returned from a quick trip to Europe; popular singer-songwriters Rute Mbangwa and Clare Nyakujara, guitarist Rudo Chasi, Zimbabwe-rocker Kessia Magosha recently returned from a Rock music programme in Johannesburg; the afrocentric M’Afriq featuring lead singer and front-lady Pauline Gundidza, and a special performance of ‘3 Generations’: afrojazz-istas Dudu Manhenga, the strongly up&coming ‘uZanele’ and Clare Nyakujara.  The spoken word will be carried by poets Roxy ‘Xapa’ Mathazia, Batsirai Chigama, Charity Hutete, and RuTendo DeNise, with Wadzanai Chiuriri as MC.

The Sistaz Open Mic ‘after-party’ continues from 5.30pm with the lady of love songs Plaxedes Wenyika and her backing band, until 7pm, featuring songs from her albums ‘Tisa Paradzane’, ‘Kamumhanzi’, ‘Sentiments’ ‘Full Circle’ and her very latest single ‘Kuva Newe’ (Being with you), hot from the studio and expected on the airwaves next week.

The Women’s Day commemoration by Pamberi Trust is supported in part by the Embassy of Canada for the second year running, giving vital support to initiatives for freedom of expression by women artists and gender advancement in general.

Other events to mark the week at Book Cafe include a free screening presented by Women Filmmakers of Zimbabwe on Wednesday 6 March of the film ‘CUT’ – a confrontation with the brutal practice of female genital mutilation; a delightful evening performance on Thursday 7 March by three of Zimbabwe’s popular women artists entitled ‘3Generations: Dudu, Uzanele and Clare’, and a networking session for women artists and organisations before the Sistaz Open Mic.

International Women’s Day around the world
The 2013 Theme for celebrations around the world is ‘The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum.  Each year International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8 around the world, by individuals and organisations, governments, charities, educational institutions, women’s groups, corporations and the media.  Thousands of events occur not just on this day but throughout March to mark the economic, political and social achievements of women each year, and to draw attention to global and local gender issues.

Over time and distance, the equal rights of women have progressed.  In Zimbabwe, there is much to be celebrated, and the Sistaz Open Mic on Saturday 9 March will honour some of the women in the Arts in Zimbabwe, who have

Sistaz Open Mic falls under the gender project FLAME (Female Literary Arts & Music Enterprise) of Harare-based arts development organisation Pamberi Trust, which has worked with hundreds of women artists over the years and commemorated the 16 Days of activism every year since 2007, with women artists speaking out loud and proud in protest against violence in our society.

The Book Cafe celebrations this March follow on from a powerful programme in November-December 2012 with 16 events staged around the global campaign ’16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women’, which featured film, discussion, workshops and music and poetry performances, graced by US hiphop artist Akua Naru and over 80 women artists of Zimbabwe.

As always, Sistaz Open Mic promises to be a lively and highly entertaining affair, with a strong sense of purpose – it’s a time for women of Harare to come out to meet, learn more, and celebrate themselves against a backdrop of great music and poetry from sisters in the Arts.

Other aspects of the gender programme are supported by Hivos, the European Union and other partners.

- Press Release from the Book Cafe